My can of Diet Rite had 0mg of sodium (and no aspartame), but my can of Minute Maid Lite Lemonade has 50mg of sodium and aspartame.
Broken Hoe - The sodium content in a lot of the things I was eating wasn’t something I had even been thinking of until I broke out the calorie calculator to figure out my pancake recipe. It’s insane! Controlling the amount of sodium in my food looks like it’ll be a hell of a lot harder work than watching calories. A simple sandwich could easily have almost the entire RDA of sodium.
As I’d said before, upon reflection I can see how, not knowing the specifics of what I cooked, it could sound high-calorie, which may have been what my mother thought. It really wasn’t, though. The pancakes were made of whole grain wheat flour, wheat bran, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, topped with maple syrup and margarine. That’s it. No milk, no eggs, no pre-made mix. The baking powder makes them fluff up nicely just like normal and while they do sit a bit heavier in the stomach than standard pancakes because of all of the fiber, that’s part of the point. The entire meal ended up being 406 calories. The pancakes are homemade and the V8 is made from vegetable juice concentrates (no more processed than any other juice), so the only very-processed part of it is the meatless sausage.
With some experimentation, I settled on using sliced strawberries rather than margarine and maple syrup this morning and cut out the sausage. I have no intention of trying to make my breakfast any smaller/lighter, though. If I get it below 350 calories, I’ll end up either starving and being miserable or snacking, because that won’t keep me satisfied. As for more raw foods…well, my mother switched our household to a raw “fruitarian” diet when I was a teenager, so I’ll give up my oven when it’s pried from my cold, dead hands.
And unfortunately, it looks like the mobile van people don’t come to my neck of the woods, but I may check out other options for having my body fat tested. My weight is frustrating, but it’s really the fat on my abdomen that bothers me more than the number on the scale. Some more objective way to measure it might help.
Now, before anyone jumps on me, accusing me of being one of those “low-carb” nutjobs, no, I’m not. Humans need carbohydrates, just not in the quantities that most Americans consume them.
CaerieD, those are probably the heathiest pancakes possible, but they’re still…pancakes, which are basically just flavored flour which in turn is just flavored carbs or simpler still…sugar. You’re eating sugar for breakfast. If you add syrup, you’re putting sugar on your sugar. Add margarine and you’re piling processed fat onto your plate of sugar-topped sugar.
If you really want to control your appetite and eat a healthy breakfast, you need protein, not just a bunch of sugar. There are only 70 calories in a hardboiled (or poached) egg, you could eat several of them plus a piece of fruit (healthy carbs) and be much better off.
My God… I’m morbidly obese, and all in the crotch!
I’ll second these…they’re great. Caramel are the best, IMO, but more expensive than most bars. My hierarchy would go like this:
Gold medal: Products that are as satisfying as regular (full fat, full sugar) counterparts but not more expensive.
Silver medal: As satisfying etc. and healthier, but more expensive, OR, not quite as satisfying but at least the price is in line.
Bronze medal: Not really as satisfying but at least approximates the original, and may cost more.
So IMO Fiber One bars get the silver.
Another silver to Clif Bars, btw. If you’re hankering for a candy bar, these give a good fix, but with healthier ingredients (including soy).
Gold medal? There aren’t many, but I advise you check the freezer case for Michelina’s “Lean Gourmet” entrées. Not quite as good as “Lean Cuisine,” but you can get them for a buck or less.
Now let’s talk about the “Crap medal.” I’d give this award to the Pizza Hut “Light and Fit” pizza. The crust is soooo thin, the topics are soooo skimpy, that they really have achieved nothing. Ounce for ounce, it can’t be much better nutritionally but they charge full price for it like they’ve trained some kind of advanced science on the subject. Uh uh…some people grab for anything advertised as nutritionally better, but they’ve just given you a weenie portion.
What could they have achieved? Use whole wheat to gain fiber in the crust, tweak the cheese to low fat, maybe sub in soy or even turkey for some of the sausage, really work the spices…
Also, when I want to eat “fast food”, I usually go with a roast chicken breast sandwhich from Subway. With lots of tomatos and onions and lettuce. Plus, the footlongs are five bucks, so you basically pay for two days’ lunches. Sweet.
Oh, and try Edy’s Orange & Cream Bars.
Like I said, the fiber bars, the yoplait yogurt-they’ve got some good ones, etc. I’m lucky-on nice days, I walk from downtown to the Science Center. The walk is along the river, the view is GORGEOUS, and the only hazard is the goose poop.
Try also “rewarding” yourself when you reach a goal-but NOT with food. Like something you’ve had on your Amazon wishlist for AGES.
Well, people don’t need calories in the quantities that most Americans consume them. The general and widely accepted (among physiologists) balance is 50-55% carbohydrates, 25-30% proteins, and ~20% fats. Reducing the fat percentage is the easiest way to reduce calorie intake without changing the overall amount of food consumed (in mass); however, replacing removed fats with simple processed carbohydrates of the same mass, while netting somewhat fewer calories, actually stimulates fat production and retention, hence why eating high carb, low fat snack foods is typically ineffective.
The breakfast meal above would definitely be improved by taking out the margarine, minimizing the syrup, and adding in some high fiber fruit, or better yet switching to a whole grain like oat groats (vastly superior to rolled oatmeal, IMHO, especially with some toasted walnuts and a small handful of blueberries), but at least the pancakes are whole grain flour and wheat bran, which means they’ll break down a lot slower than processed “white” GP flour.
You definitely want some protein, especially early in the day, hence the sausage-esque patties. I’m not a fan of eggs (personal distaste) and the yolk contains a high amount of cholesterol, but as long as it is one soft-boiled egg and cholesterol intake at other meals is limited it is within accepted dietary allowances. Personally I’d opt for a bit of cheese or a slice of lox, but to each his own.
One thing to be careful about at breakfast is juice; most juices have a lot of sugar (fructose) and not as many nutrients as you’d think, with much of the nutrition you would get from eating the fruit left in the pulp. Better to eat the fruit and have a cup of tea or water.
Stranger
“Just stop eating” would be horrible dieting advice for me. I get HUNGRY, and when I feel starving, there’s no way in hell I can resist snacking on whatever junk food is around the office.
My strategy is to provide against my appetite. I plan ahead and buy and prepare and bring vegie sticks, fresh fruit, little containers of nonfat cottage cheese, little babybel lowfat cheeses, chunks of cold leftover chicken breast or grilled fish, etc., etc. I don’t bring over a certain amount of snack items per day, though. I still keep the snack calorie count under a certain level. I also drink lots of water, Crystal Lite drink, and iced decaf coffee sweetened with Splenda to cope with my sweet tooth.
Armed with this food, I can resist the ever-present crap at the office. Meals that I prepare at home always follow the lower-calorie, higher fiber and high nutrition rule. I also eliminate as much as possible of simple carbohydrates.
Doing this plus exercise I’ve lost 40 pounds.
The eight glasses of water a day not a completely invalid idea; the debunking was in that people don’t count the water in the food they eat, plus beverages like coffee, tea, even alcohol, towards the eight glasses.
http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/283/5/R993
Personally, I hate plain water and drinking it makes me nauseous and more hungry. So for me it’s not effective toward being more healthy. I do drink a lot of non-sugar fluids like Crystal Light and sparkly non-sugar/non-sodium drinks.
Just so we’re clear on this, I did not, in fact, eat pancakes for every meal of my day. I like pancakes for breakfast and have adjusted my diet so that I can eat them. My whole grain pancakes do control my appetite, far better than fruit. Almost all fruit hits me like an IV of sugar and then I’m starving two hours later, so I don’t eat fruit for breakfast. When I tried that in the past, it would set off an all day starvation mode. When I do eat fruit, I’ll usually have it with something loaded with fiber so it doesn’t hit me quite so fast or as one of my snacks. For the most part, though, I try to avoid fruit and stick with other sources of carbs.
And eggs make me vomit.
The day of the infamous sugar-on-my-sugar breakfast, 41% of my calories were from carbs, which is actually pretty low.
It sounds like you are doing a great job, Caerie, and if it is working for you - wonderful. Any time I try a diet of some kind, people always tell me ways to improve it. The trouble is, those ways won’t work for me. Cottage cheese for breakfast? Not a chance, because I think it tastes like sweaty monkey ass.
For me, the keys to losing weight have always been exercise, and make incremental improvements in my diet. If I am going to eat pancakes for breakfast (not usual for me) it would be to eat healthier, lower calorie pancakes. It just doesn’t work for me to make the sort of massive shifts some people are talking about here.
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I think you’ve hit on some very important things. It’s crazy to think you can give up something you love permanently. You might do it for a few months to lose weight, but sooner or later the craving will be back.
So why not take the bull by the horns?
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Sure you’d probably love a big stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes slathered with butter and swimming in real maple syrup…but that’s not in the diet plan. Improve them, as you’ve done: substitute some healthier ingredients in etc. Maybe they aren’t health food, but at least they’re “less unhealthy.”
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No one meal sinks a diet. “Budget” them, as you’ve done: make other sacrifices at lunch or whatever so you can enjoy them in moderation. They’re more important to you, and you’re spending your calories there: nothing wrong with that.
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I think a lot of diets fail because people can adapt to really stilted menus in the short run, but in the long run they’re not satisfied and gravitate back. Realize that it’s all about bang-for-your-buck (bang-for-your-calorie, actually) satisfaction, as you’ve done.
CHECK THE NUTRITIONAL LABEL!!!
Seriously, I’ve found Michelina “Lean Gourmet” entrees that were loaded with sodium (as much as some of their regular entrees), and again, some of them had as many calories as the regular dishes.
I’ve found similar things with “Lean Cuisine”. Bigger portions, better taste, but…ahh… some more calories (and sodium, yikes for the sodium!).
I try to keep the sodium in the frozen entrees I get to less than 30%, and that may be a challenge with some of the diet entrees.
Subway is good, as long as people don’t put all the mayo and the special sauces on their sandwiches (or extra cheese, or meat… defeats the purpose… :rolleyes: ). I usually get a six inch veggie sandwich, and ask them to add extra veggies (instead of the skimpy pieces they put), with no sauce (sometimes oil), and pepper (and sometimes herbs).
I do admit that most of the time, instead of the baked lays option, I go with the cookies. Also defeats the purpose… but… COOKIES!!! COOKIES!! (sorry, cookies are my weakness)
I wouldn’t be surprised…WW trained us to watch calories, fat, and fiber. That’s all. No concern about sodium, protein, vitamins, sugars, or anything else. Of course there’s no perfect food, so it’s a matter of picking your poison to a certain degree.
BTW when I was on WW, I looked around at stuff to see what other products might be compatible. When Atkins was all the rage, there were many products for it (maybe still are, I don’t know). Their strategy seems to be to eliminate carbs by boosting fat. So most of their stuff was a no-go for WW. I mean, you could have it, but it was expensive money-wise, cost too many points, didn’t satisfy like the real thing etc.
OTOH some of the South Beach Diet stuff had good numbers, IIRC.
ETA about this:
Seriously, I’ve found Michelina “Lean Gourmet” entrees that were loaded with sodium (as much as some of their regular entrees), and again, some of them had as many calories as the regular dishes.
They used to have some REALLY good ones but either they stopped making it or they simply aren’t being distributed here any more. 8 oz Turkey/Veggies was 2 points, 8 oz Chicken parmesan/veggies was only 3 points. If you’ve never done WW, hmm…2 points = 100 cal, no fat, no fiber (or similar). 3 points = 150 cal, no fat, no fiber. A regular can of Coke is probably 5-6 pts. I’ll have to double-check/compare on the stuff I’m getting now, ounce-for-ounce.
Oh, they have good ones (I buy from them), but I also get Michelina regular dishes that I’ve seen have as much calories as the ones I’m buying on the “Lean Gourmet” label. Not all of them, but a nice change (and they’re usually even cheaper. 
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Here’s a one for one comparison:
http://www.michelinas.com/ProductByBrand_LG_10620_Spaghetti_Meat_1Lean_Gourmet.aspx
http://www.leancuisine.com/Products/NutritionInformation.aspx?ProductID=56
Michelina’s counts 6 pts (5.9 actually); Lean Cuisine is 5 (about 5.4 actually)
Sodium: 540 for Michelina’s vs 600 for Lean Cuisine, surprisingly.
I’ve never had either so I can’t speak to any flavor issues. At the market around the corner, though, Lean Cuisine runs maybe $2.75 regularly and Michelina’s is 99 cents.
Here is their turkey entree:
http://www.michelinas.com/ProductByBrand_LG_10756_Roast_Turkey_Vegetables_1Lean_Gourmet.aspx
But I see it’s different than what I used to get. It says 4 points, but it’s really 3.5. And when I got it, this didn’t have any mashed potatoes (though there was a bit of gravy for the turkey).
And here’s the Creamy Parmesan Chicken.
http://www.michelinas.com/ProductByBrand_LG_10753_Creamy_Parmesan_Chicken_1Lean_Gourmet.aspx
There was no rice in it before and it was 3 points, not 5.
What role does sodium play in weight control?
Strictly it doesn’t, but the less sodium you have in your diet the better (there’s too much of it in the modern diet currently, pretty much anything ready made has it in spades).
This is why the WW core plan is working for me so far–I can still have the things I like but with more healthful substitutions.
2 sausage McMuffins with cheese? - one WW whole wheat english muffin, egg fried in olive oil, sprinkle of 2% shredded cheese, Canadian bacon
Fettucini alfredo with sausage and mushrooms? - whole wheat pasta, 2% cheese, lean ground turkey, mushrooms fried in olive oil spray
Pint of Ben & Jerry’s? - Fat free sugar free Double chocolate pudding with Cool Whip free. Ok, it’s not the same thing at all but I get the chocolate taste.
And I eat whenever I am hungry, so as to not get ravenous and want to binge. It ends up being a small meal or snack probably every three hours at least.
As far as sodium goes, WW doesn’t count it unless you’re someone who has issues with high blood pressure, etc. I don’t so far but I still try to avoid sodium. Another reason the core plan is good for me–I cook something from scratch and control the salt rather than buying frozen dinners. It get tedious as I eat the same thing all week but being more healthy is a payoff.
Forget about sodium. If you’re worried, drink more water to compensate. Balancing one’s diet is difficult enough without factoring it in, and it’s hardly a priority.